CMU Buggy Newshttp://cmubuggy.org/news
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 21:12:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.140.440431-79.942231BuggyAlumniAssociationNewshttps://feedburner.google.comRolls are done and #GivingCMUDayhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationUltimate/~3/pZSAlcvYjg0/
http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-are-done-and-givingcmuday/#respondFri, 24 Nov 2017 21:12:10 +0000http://cmubuggy.org/news/?p=4182The Final weekend got rained/snowed out so there will be no more rolls until spring. Check out the last rolls report for current standings and speed data that we were able to collect.

We hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving with friends and family! With the various holidays coming up, we would like to remind you all about this coming GivingTuesday on Nov. 28th.

If you are looking for a way to give your group an extra boost, check out the student organization challenge that will be running throughout the Tuesday activities.

Happy Holidays and see you all in the spring!

]]>http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-are-done-and-givingcmuday/feed/0http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-are-done-and-givingcmuday/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationNews/~3/91bn4SsOCHk/Rolls Report: Nov. 12 – Mini-Raceday!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationUltimate/~3/UnYq0G-nHBE/
http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-report-nov-12-mini-raceday/#commentsWed, 15 Nov 2017 22:04:34 +0000http://cmubuggy.org/news/?p=4173
This past weekend, Pittsburgh saw some more wintry weather. While snow wasn’t flying, a 20F morning on Saturday lead to cancelled Rolls. Fortunately the temperature on Sunday crept up above freezing and we were able to have Mini-Raceday! The tl;dr is that Spirit took fastest Freeroll, the PiKA women were the swiftest on the backhills, and SDC took both fastest men’s backhills and fastest overall time. The official Sweepstakes times are towards the end of the post along with timing data from the BAA’s own Shafeeq S.

In Attendance

Org

Sunday

Apex

Firefly

CIA

Emperor, Tempest

Fringe

Blueshift, Bissa, Bolt, Boson

PhiDelt

Argo

PiKA

Banshee

SDC

Inferno, Malice, Vice, Avarice

SigEp

Beyonce, Barricuda, Kraken

Spirit

Inviscid, Zuke, King Pin, Menes

Observations (Sunday Gallery)
Despite being the fastest team on the course this weekend, SDC provided the only major incident. Immediately after her push-off, Avarice lost her wheel around the Westinghouse pond. The driver is reported to be fine and fortunately for SDC, this wasn’t their officially timed roll. Prior to the incident, Avarice and Vice were almost exactly matched for Chute speed on each of their rolls.

PhiDelt was back in action after not seeing them since the first weekend of Rolls. They rolled with SigEp to help both teams get more rolls. At one point during rolls the team of teams requested to be called “Selt”, but were refused – probably because that’s a terrible nickname. PhiDelt’s driver had a slight issue during one roll and had to come to stop by the transition flag because her helmet had slipped and occluded her vision. The problem was quickly solved and she rolled without incident for the rest of the day.

Fringe and Robobuggy has some technical issues this Sunday. Fringe was trying out some magnetic wheel covers on Blueshift that kept popping off through the Chute. Fortunately there isn’t a huge penalty for that during practice. During one of Transistor’s Rolls, she came to a complete stop just before the Chute turn and needed some humanoid assistance. Whatever the issue was caused the team to scratch for the rest of the day.

While CIA didn’t top out on Sweepstakes lists, Emperor has made a definite step forward in speed. This Sunday, her downhill time was just a hair slower than the best on Truck Weekend, but importantly her Rollout speed was about 5% above the rest of the pack. The Hill 3 pusher on that particular roll was thoroughly smoked. Given that Emperor’s driver is new, we can’t wait to see how she improves into the Spring.

Below are the official times from Sweepstakes. The Chairman would like me to remind our readers that while the committee did their best to insure accurate timing, there were limited in their manpower. Some errors might have occurred.

Team

Gender

Start

Hill 3

Finish

Freeroll

Backhills

Total

Apex

Mens

1:35:25

1:36:40

1:37:49

0:01:15

0:01:09

0:02:24

CIA

Mens

0:54:32

0:55:31

0:56:30

0:00:59

0:00:59

0:01:58

CIA

Mens

1:37:20

1:38:20

1:39:18

0:01:00

0:00:58

0:01:58

CIA

Mens

0:09:15

0:10:18

0:11:19

0:01:03

0:01:00

0:02:04

Fringe

Mens

0:45:27

0:46:26

0:47:22

0:00:59

0:00:56

0:01:55

Fringe

Mens

1:28:18

1:29:19

1:30:15

0:01:01

0:00:55

0:01:57

PiKA

Mens

1:30:34

1:31:39

1:32:35

0:01:05

0:00:56

0:02:01

PiKA

Mens

1:05:58

1:07:03

1:07:59

0:01:05

0:00:56

0:02:01

Robobuggy

Mens

0:24:40

0:26:44

0:02:04

SDC

Mens

1:17:09

1:18:08

0:00:59

SDC

Mens

0:35:24

0:36:24

0:37:17

0:01:00

0:00:53

0:01:53

SigEp

Mens

0:14:50

0:15:56

0:17:12

0:01:06

0:01:16

0:02:22

SPIRIT

Mens

1:32:40

1:33:33

1:34:48

0:00:53

0:01:15

0:02:08

SPIRIT

Mens

0:50:07

0:51:07

0:52:27

0:01:00

0:01:20

0:02:20

SPIRIT

Mens

0:28:08

0:29:11

0:01:03

The following timing data is taken from video footage of the buggies. When an identifiable part of the buggy passes two landmarks, the timestamp is noted, allowing Shafeeq to calculate the speed of the buggy. This is the same method reported for Truck Weekend 2017, so the data are directly comparable. Our dedicated, data-gathering alumnus would like the teams to know that it’s exceedingly difficult to track dark-colored buggies for these measurements and if you would like more and better data, please add a strip of colored tape to your push bar.

Team

Buggy

Steps (mph)

Jumbotron (mph)

% Loss

Apex

Firefly

26.2

21.6

17%

Apex

Firefly

28

23.5

16%

Apex

Firefly

27

22.9

15%

CIA

Emperor

33.3

29.7

11%

CIA

Emperor

36.4

32.1

12%

CIA

Emperor

34.5

30.6

11%

CIA

Tempest

33.6

29.7

12%

CIA

Tempest

32.5

28.2

13%

Fringe

Blueshift

35.9

30

17%

Fringe

Blueshift

33.9

29.5

13%

Fringe

Blueshift

36.1

29.7

18%

Fringe

Bolt

26.2

Fringe

Boson

32.9

28.4

14%

Fringe

Boson

31.3

27.3

13%

Fringe

Boson

33.3

28

16%

PiKA

Banshee

24.3

19.7

19%

PiKA

Banshee

28.2

SDC

Avarice

28

24.6

12%

SDC

Avarice

28.5

24.8

13%

SDC

Inferno

30.3

SDC

Inferno

35.5

30.6

14%

SDC

Inferno

35.3

30.6

13%

SDC

Malice

32.4

28.4

12%

SDC

Malice

30.8

26.6

14%

SDC

Malice

29.9

25.7

14%

SDC

Vice

27.9

24.6

12%

SDC

Vice

28.6

24.6

14%

SigEp

Barracuda

25.1

SigEp

Barracuda

30.4

25

18%

SigEp

Beyonce

25.5

20.5

19%

SigEp

Beyonce

25.5

SigEp

Beyonce

27.5

SigEp

Kraken

28.7

24.4

15%

SigEp

Kraken

27.6

23.4

15%

SigEp

Kraken

26.2

Spirit

Black/Gold

35.7

30.3

15%

Spirit

Inviscid

33.2

27.7

17%

Spirit

Inviscid

32.4

28

14%

Spirit

Primer

26.5

22.9

14%

Spirit

Primer

26.9

23

14%

Sprit

Zuke

35.1

27

23%

Sprit

Zuke

33.6

27.5

18%

Below is a running total of buggy/driver roll counts. An asterisk in the following table indicates a new driver:

Team

Buggy

Driver

Rolls To Date

AEPi

Kamikaze

Rachel*

0

Apex

Firefly

Sam

9

Bethany*

5

Ari*

1

Phoenix

Ari*

3

Vicki*

8

Bethany*

2

CIA

Orca

Vicky

2

Tanvi*

6

Emperor

Rachel*

22

Icarus

Rishi*

7

Impulse

Yushuan

2

Rachel*

3

Kevin*

3

Equinox

Emily

16

Tempest

Kady

26

Fringe

Boson

Helen

13

Blueshift

Amy

14

Nina

8

Bissa

Tishya*

11

Nina

8

Bolt

Sarah*

13

PhiDelt

Argo

Adeline

2

PiKA

Cliodhna

Victoria

18

Banshee

Victoria

2

Raptor

Archana

1

SAE

SDC

Inferno

Annie

21

Kyoko

3

Malice

Annie

3

Kyoko

18

Vice

Elaine*

16

Avarice

Amanda*

16

SigEp

Beyonce

Nazil

0

Haiwen*

11

Kraken

Nazli

6

Haiwen*

2

Barricuda

Sophie

7

Beccy*

8

SigNu

Krait

Claire*

0

Alana*

2

Spirit

Seraph

Rebecca

0

Sarah*

8

Lillie*

6

Zuke

Diamond

18

Kingpin

Rebecca*

17

Lillie*

0

Sarah*

1

Inviscid

Beichen

15

Menes

Sarah

3

—

Rolls Report Contributors:
Ben M.
Shafeeq S.
Natalie M.

]]>http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-report-nov-12-mini-raceday/feed/6http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-report-nov-12-mini-raceday/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationNews/~3/Am_8qE4SoU0/Let’s Vote in a new Treasurer!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationUltimate/~3/1lg2FOGjz20/
http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/lets-vote-in-a-new-treasurer/#commentsMon, 13 Nov 2017 17:00:20 +0000http://cmubuggy.org/news/?p=4166After almost half a year without a Treasurer, it’s about time we vote one in and complete our team as we start looking ahead to the spring semester.

Thanks to the nominations from our last vote, Bryan Arsham, AEPi Alum from 2010 2008 and new Broadcaster as of last year, has offered tohelp us out. So now it’s our responsibility to show our confidence in his abilities and confirm his nomination.

Please comment below with you vote for or against his confirmation, and feel free to include any questions for him if you have any. Voting period through Monday Nov. 20th.

Mini-Raceday Results will be coming out with the rolls report later this week!

As Natalie mentioned in the last Rolls Report, Spirit Buggy Founder Matt Wagner will be returning to give his “Everything I learned, I learned from Buggy” Talk and we will also be bringing out the doughnuts and coffee for Saturday morning if it’s not too cold. So come by and say Hi!

Coffee & Doughnuts Tent

Everything I learned, I learned from Buggy

9:30am @ Danforth Conference Room, CUC

By-Laws Amendments & Other updates

With the Rules Committee meetings well underway, teams are starting to get a chance to vote on some of the various changes with planned implementation slated for next semester for various procedural adjustments. So far, the Rules Committee has been starting off light making minor corrections to outdated rules and formalizing some of the existing practices. Here is a list of many of the new rules or adjustments that have been discussed and/or voted on:

Autonomous Buggy – Robobuggy has officially been added to the regular roll order by a unanimous vote of the chairmen and will be working on new sections and definitions to help define their place in the sport for the years to come.

Drop Test – The chairmen have voted to include a minor revision requiring each buggy/driver combination to be tested each morning that combination intends to roll.

Speed Restrictions for New Drivers – Something that has already been in practice for the last several years, Sweepstakes will be formalizing their first roll speed limits.

Veteran Drivers would be required to be speed limited for their first (1) roll of each semester.

New Drivers would be required to be speed limited for their first 3 or 4 rolls (TBD).

Once New Drivers reach their carry-over limit (8 for fall) they would be considered “experienced” and would only require a single speed limited roll for the following term.

Optional Follow Car– During Freeroll practices, teams would have the option to forgo their follow car and instead have a member of their team with an extraction kit remain with sweepstakes at the top of the hill and ride with the safety chair in the event of an incident. The chairmen voted to approve this amendment and will begin implementation starting this spring.

Mini Raceday

Teams will be competing in mini-raceday this Saturday for one of 4 top spots. Awards will be given to the top times for Men’s and Women’s, Freeroll and Backhill times. In the event that rolls are cancelled Saturday, Sunday is the fall-back plan.

]]>http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/50th-anniversary-as-cmu-homecoming-by-laws-amendments/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationNews/~3/QCdvNmCeQ3c/Rolls Report: Nov. 4 – Oh hey, rainhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationUltimate/~3/iDxGX8Xku3Y/
Wed, 08 Nov 2017 02:11:19 +0000http://cmubuggy.org/news/?p=4154This past weekend foul weather again kept us to one day (Saturday) of rolls. Perhaps the Pittsburgh weather wanted to celebrate the release of the new Thor movie. Regardless of the reason, the constant rains and cooling temperatures are unpleasant reminders that winter is coming to the ‘Burgh.

Some teams had to find creative ways to deal with logistical issues this Saturday. SigNu and Fringe were rolling together either to get SigNu some extra rolls or makeup for a missing follow car. CIA was back to using a Zip Car as a follow vehicle, despite their best efforts to ping local alumni for help with their motor deficiency.

Spirit seems to be having a little trouble with Inviscid as there were reports of the buggy intermittently scraping on the road at the bottom of Hill 1 while rolling on flat ground. We believe that the Safety Chair scratched Invsicid for the remainder of rolls after the incident. It’s worth noting that several weeks ago, Zuke hit a bump in the Chute and came to a scraping stop after it appeared the front wheel collapsed into the shell of the buggy. Hopefully there isn’t a problem spreading amongst the team’s fleet.

PiKA and Robobuggy each had non-crash-related problems during rolls as well. For PiKA, a Hill 3 pusher was far too optimistic about Raptor’s potential roll out, and the buggy came to a stop and started to roll backwards before the pusher got to her. The pusher must have been expecting Cliodhna… During one of Robobuggy’s rolls, Transistor came to a stop before the transition flag and was driven back to their staging area. We weren’t able to find out what might have gone wrong.

SigNu had the only major incident of the weekend when Krait rolled over just before the Chute. The buggy was moving slowly with 3 bags and appeared to have attempted to head towards the Phipps staff entrance. She impacted the curb, crunched loudly, and then rolled onto her side. EMS did an extensive review with the driver and eventually called in their vehicle to transport the driver back to the staging area. While we haven’t heard anything official, the driver seemed shaken but physically alright.

A high chance of rain storms prompted the Sweepstakes Chair to cancel Sunday rolls on Saturday evening. It turned out to be an excellent decision as Pittsburgh was thoroughly soaked by the time buggies would have been rolling.

This coming weekend (November 11 & 12) will not only be Mini Raceday and CMU’s homecoming, but also the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the joining of Mellon Institute and the Carnegie Institute of Technology! In honor of this extremely packed weekend, the BAA will have doughnuts and coffee at the top of Hill 1. If rolls don’t satiate your buggy needs, you can head over to the Danforth Conference room at 9:30am for Matt Wagner’s talk entitled “Everything I Learned, I Learned From Buggy.” It’s going to be a great weekend and we hope to see you there!

Below is a running total of buggy/driver roll counts. An asterisk in the following table indicates a new driver:

Team

Buggy

Driver

Rolls To Date

AEPi

Kamikaze

Rachel*

0

Apex

Firefly

Sam

9

Bethany*

Ari*

1

Phoenix

Ari*

3

Vicki*

8

Bethany*

2

CIA

Orca

Vicky

2

Tanvi*

6

Emperor

Rachel*

17

Icarus

Rishi*

7

Impulse

Yushuan

2

Rachel*

3

Kevin*

3

Equinox

Emily

16

Tempest

Kady

22

Fringe

Boson

Helen

11

Blueshift

Amy

14

Nina

5

Bissa

Tishya*

9

Nina

8

Bolt

Sarah*

11

PhiDelt

Argo

Sarah

2

PiKA

Cliodhna

Victoria

18

Banshee

Victoria

0

Raptor

Archana

1

SAE

SDC

Inferno

Annie

17

Kyoko

3

Malice

Annie

3

Kyoko

13

Vice

Elaine*

12

Avarice

Amanda*

13

SigEp

Beyonce

Nazil

0

Haiwen*

7

Kraken

Nazli

3

Haiwen*

2

Barricuda

Sophie

5

Beccy*

6

SigNu

Krait

Claire*

0

Alana*

2

Spirit

Seraph

Rebecca

0

Sarah*

8

Lillie*

6

Zuke

Diamond

15

Kingpin

Rebecca*

14

Lillie*

0

Sarah*

1

Inviscid

Veichen

13

—

Rolls Report Contributors:
Ben M.
Natalie M.

]]>http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-report-nov-4-oh-hey-rain/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationNews/~3/eh3Kgi-QkJo/Rolls Report: Oct. 28 – Happy Halloween!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationUltimate/~3/1xGl-mWUJyk/
http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/11/rolls-report-oct-28-happy-halloween/#commentsThu, 02 Nov 2017 22:50:29 +0000http://cmubuggy.org/news/?p=4145Thanks to rain and Halloween shenanigans, teams only rolled for one hour this weekend. Saturday was designated the official evening to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve, so Sweepstakes polled the chairmen and canceled Sunday rolls due to a projected low turn out (and high hangover rate). Unfortunately around 8:30am, Pittsburgh decided it was truly fall and it started to rain. Rolls were immediately called and the course was cleaned up for the weekend.

Saturday morning started off cloudy but reasonably warm at 55°F. Sweepstakes intended to get the first buggy rolling 5 minutes early, but the first buggy was on its way at 7:30am. This was actually on time, given the original schedule, so we’ll call that a win.
For the first time (ever?), Robobuggy was part of the regular roll order. Now that the team can reliably make it into the Freeroll and at least halfway through the Chute, Robobuggy is rolling with the humans. They are officially one step closer to sentience.

Because we only made through the roll order 1.5 times before the rain started, there isn’t too much to report. Fringe (particularly Bolt), Spirit, SDC, and CIA (particularly Equinox and Emperor) had some substantial rollouts reaching the fire hydrant in front of Porter Hall. We aren’t sure what kind of Hill 2 send offs the buggies were getting, but given where we are in the season, these rollouts were truly impressive.

SDC and Fringe were feeling the spirit of the holiday and decorated several buggies. Inferno was sporting some terrifying devil horns and Avarice (commonly known as “the orange one”) was cutely made up like a pumpkin. Fringe opted for a creepier motif and put about 2 million googly eyes on one of their buggies. The festiveness aside, both teams were working on speed this weekend. SDC is back to drifting off speed through the Chute to prevent spin outs. And on one roll, Fringe nearly passed SigEp on Hill 5, although that may have been due to SigEp trying to Iron Man the back hills.

SigEp seemed a little out of it this weekend as their follow car tailed their buggies throughout the rolls and occasionally found themselves driving beside the buggy instead of behind it. That’s not exactly the point of a follow car…

That just about wraps it up for this Halloween’s rolls. Hopefully next week we’ll have dry weather and dry students to get a full weekend of rolls!

Below is a running total of buggy/driver roll counts. An asterisk in the following table indicates a new driver:

The parents were out in force this weekend! Thanks for everyone who came out to support the insane sport of buggy bright and early this past Saturday and Sunday. It was awesome to have an enthusiastic audience that was either knowledgeable about buggy, asking great questions or even participating; and did we see some folks pushing the back hills?

Shenanigans started before the first buggy was one its way. At 7:15 am on Saturday, bales were still being set up along the Chute. Sweepstakes put out a call for anyone with a broom to clean off the copious amounts of loose hay, after last weekend seems like our fearless leaders are doing everything in their power to reduce the number of incidents.

That said we did start rolling Robobuggy on Saturday while a buggy related vehicle was still parked down in the Chute. The buggy and follow car passed through without incident. Immediately following the first robobuggy roll, the Sweepstakes chair drove down the course and parked between the groups of flaggers to inspect and then correct the placement of the hay bale on the staircase. Unfortunately, Robo still got the all clear even with a car parked in the middle of the road. To their credit they were able to complete the roll without any incident by dodging between the monument and the Sweepstakes vehicle. Atlas was not out this weekend.

With autonomous rolls wrapped up we got started with human filled buggies.

Apex – Apex, back to rolling two buggies, lost their rear hatch just on their first roll of the weekend. In all following rolls they could be seen securing it with copious amounts of tape. Sweepstakes after some conferring decided to look the other way on this loss of mass incident. Kind of them since they were close enough to watch it happen. The team was sadly absent from rolls on Sunday due to a lack of available drivers.

CIA – Orca did not return to the course this week after last week’s crash, which is not terribly surprising given the extent of the damage. Word on the street is that the team was short on drivers for Saturday rolls providing them with enough pushers for full Hill 1s. You have to keep those pushers busy or else they’ll get themselves into trouble… Speaking of those pushers, by Sunday, the CIA parental units had caught Buggy Fever and gave pushing a shot. It was a real parent-child bonding experience. The rest of Sunday was uneventful for the team, save Icarus clipping the outer bales during one roll. The driver was able to brake safely and no major damage to driver or buggy occurred.

Fringe – We saw many enthusiastic Fringe parents down in the Chute on Saturday with a few daring to push some back hills. It looked as though the parents gained an appreciation for their children’s athleticism after a little buggy pushing though. The team was sending buggies off in rapid succession this weekend leading some Raceday-level exciting finishes at Hill 5. Sunday brought an even more breath-taking finish when the Blueshift tapped one of the finish line catchers and lost its front hatch. More duct tape, Fringe!

PiKA – PiKA has been keeping their speed up, and Saturday was no different. Off bags since day one Cleo was flying around the course, their experienced driver is only a few weeks into rolls and seems to be refining her line. The team was solid all weekend until the last Sunday roll when Cliodhna spun without contact in the Chute and ended the weekend’s rolls.

SDC – Avarice and Vice started the day bagged, but their new drivers rolled without incidents. By the end of rolls on Saturday, SDC seemed to have returned to form and is rolling quickly, collecting data, and operating at a high level of efficiency. Unfortunately on Sunday, Vice again hit the pothole just before the Chute and again broke an axel clean off. The driver was fine after the incident, and hopefully the Quikrete fairy can help with the pothole.

SigEp – Beyoncé was back this week in all of her glory. We haven’t seen this new mother since race day but it seems like maternity leave is over and she’s back to the grindstone. It’s normally the purview of SAE to bring some lighthearted fun to rolls and we’re happy someone is filling that niche until we see the return of SAE. The brothers (might have been?) celebrating with a late night event on Saturday because it was a skeleton crew of only a couple pushers and 2 buggies on Sunday. More power to the dedicated few.

SigNu – Oh hey, SigNu! We’ve missed you. The team was back on Sunday getting in a couple rolls. They were a little uncoordinated (as expected for a first appearance), and forgot to connect with their follow car on the first roll. The Hill 2 pusher had to take off down the Freeroll chasing after Krait. The team worked out most of their kinks by the end of rolls including finding the best way to lift their buggy and having the driver brake at the finish line.

Spirit – Spirit hit the snooze alarm and scratched their first roll of the weekend. When the rotation came back around they snuck one buggy through before offering up the only incident of Saturday. The second buggy took her chute turn very wide and collided with the outer bales and came to a stop. EMS checked out the driver and she was cleared to be pushed back up the hill; everyone hit their marks as the flaggers stopped the third Spirit buggy. The follow car along with the safety chair were down in the Chute in moments. Rolls resumed very quickly and Spirit continued to roll their 3 buggies for the rest of the day.In a different roll, one of the Spirit buggies stopped briefly on Hill 3 after an audible scratching sound came from somewhere below the buggy. It was briefly picked up, set back down, and continued to roll without noise. We still aren’t sure of the cause of the sound. By Sunday, Spirit had everything back in order. The day was uneventful save for one spin early in rolls.

Other incidents:

Phipps conservatory was having a conference Saturday morning which kept the Chute barricader busy, for most of the day they were opening the barricade between rolls to let in half a dozen cars or more. A number of drivers had difficulty listening to directions and decided they were going to attempt to drive up Schenley, one of them even attempted to park along the monument. Radio club, flaggers and the barricader joined in shouting down and chasing these wayward cars. None of them created any significant delays to rolls but it kept the radio safety net busy, along with some shouting being heard down in the chute.

Below is a running total of buggy/driver roll counts. An asterisk in the following table indicates a new driver:

This past weekend of rolls was a doozy, and we don’t mean that in a “everyone got 6 rolls” sort of way. Between several crashes, a twisted ankle, and a rather angry motorist, we only got through the roll order 2.5 times. In addition, wet weather on Sunday meant that this was not a very productive weekend for the teams.

Saturday morning began with unseasonably warm weather, clear skies, and Robobuggy taking the first Roll. The team made it to the first transition before removing their buggy from the course. While obviously not a complete Roll, this is progress from last week when they were simply pushing their buggy all the way around the course. By 7:15am, humanoid teams began taking their turns. Unfortunately Apex, PiKA, and SDC were the only teams able to navigate the course without incident. After last week’s rough start, SDC seems to be back in full competition mentality and is counting down their Hill 2s.

. On their first Roll, Fringe’s Boson and Blueshift made it around clean, but the third buggy, Bissa, took a too-wide Chute turn and brushed against the outer bales early. The driver appeared to regain control, and came to a stop at the end of the Chute. The flaggers didn’t see the incident and failed to throw a stop flag. Fortunately, Bolt (4th buggy) was able to navigate the Chute without any problems. The Hill 3 Fringe pusher tried to retrieve the stopped Bissa and was promptly yelled at by EMS. The driver was cleared and allowed to be pushed back to Fringe HQ in the buggy. The rest of Fringe’s Rolls were uneventful. Bissa was rolling later in the day and the team was starting to do some full Hill 1 send offs.

Spirit was next to bring unfortunate excitement to the day. The first buggy through, Zuke appeared to hit a slight bump entering the Chute and soon literal sparks were flying. While we aren’t sure what exactly happened, it looked like the front wheel pushed up into the buggy when a structural strut failed. Zuke skidded to a sparky stop. The driver was fine and all the following buggies were able to stop safely in the Freeroll.

Rounding out the trio of misfortune, CIA’s Orca had a dramatic spin on the team’s first Roll. The driver reported not being able to turn hard enough to make it into the Chute due to mechanical issues. Consequently she glided in against the outer bales early in the turn. The outrigger caught between bales causing Orca to swing hard and go nose-first into the hay. The driver was extremely (and understandably) shaken after the event, but after a full evaluation from EMS she was able to walk away from the buggy and was later reported to be doing well. Orca on the other hand… the axel was bent fully back such that the wheel now sits perpendicular to its normal plane. The buggy will be needing a fair bit of fixing before it comes back to the course.

The last major delay came from an incident on Hill 5 requiring EMS attention. While details aren’t clear, there was a buggy-human interaction that resulted in an okay-buggy and a twisted-ankle human. As far we know all parties are doing fine.

Hopefully next week we will be back to calling rolls uneventful with a dash of awesome rollouts.

Below is a running total of buggy/driver roll counts. An asterisk in the following table indicates a new driver:

Welcome back Buggy fans! It’s that time of the year again! The leaves are falling, temperatures are dropping, and students are suffering through the first round of exams. We all know what that means: time for Buggy! This past weekend our beloved tradition got started on the right wheel with clear skies and tolerable temperatures. 8 teams were out rolling their buggies tallying up 49 rolls between Saturday and Sunday, although SigNu and AEPi are expected to be joining the roll order soon.

Saturday was a fairly uneventful with just a few noteworthy items. Tom Wood, our resident buggy historian and attendee to most weekends of Rolls, was conspicuously absent. In his place was a small flock of Canadian geese. Given their temperament, we’re anxiously awaiting Tom’s return. Rolls started on time (7:05am) with 8 brave new drivers across all the teams working their way around Flagstaff. Newbies remained bagged throughout the day and some of the veteran ditching their mini parachutes after the first roll. We also saw the return of terminator robotic buggies, although they were being carefully guided around the course with a human handler. Along the lines of robot overloads, a UAV was spotted over the course, but apparently did not record anything due to technical issues. Providing us with a beautiful opportunity for puns, the Safety Chair is using a VW Beetle as a safety car – a Safety Buggy if you will.

Spirit and CIA were feeling the need for speed. Whenever Spirit was called clear to roll they essentially powered through a complete Hill 1. And by the third roll through, CIA was sending veteran drivers in the Freeroll with full pushoffs. Hill 3 pushers were burned in a hilarious fashion.

Spirit provided the most teeth-clenching excitement for the day when two of their drivers made beautifully controlled stops during the same roll. Apparently the driver’s scarf shifted into her eyes causing her to pull towards the monument just after the transition flag and come to a stop. The following buggy was thrown a stop flag and the driver slowed to a gentle stop along the curb. Really, it wasn’t that exciting, but like we said, it was a pretty uneventful day.

CIA and SigEp are duking it out for the “Loudest Buggy” superlative. Kraken came to a complete stop in the chute while making a loud rattling noise which may have been due to a loose hatch or just being Kraken. Impulse and Icarus were just louder than normal. Even buggies have a hard time waking up.

It seemed that the barricaders were having a hard time keeping awake during rolls. The Chute barricader kept falling asleep allowing cyclists, longboarders, and runners through to the course. The person also wasn’t reacting to cars trying to get into Phipps. Maybe next week EMS can set up caffeine IV drips for all the barricaders…

Sunday was a little more eventful in an unfortunate sort of way. Surprisingly, SDC provided most of the excitement. During the team’s first roll, Vice got a little lost and took a left at Panther. The driver didn’t hit the brakes until the follow car pulled up along the buggy. In the same roll, Avarice turned a little to shallow at the Chute and had to brake to a stop before hitting the barricade. For Act II, Vice lost an axle during their second roll. And for the grand finale, later in the day, Avarice seemed to have lost control while making a Chute turn and headed into the outer bales. The hatch popped loose and “crunched on impact”. The driver is doing well. Hopefully next Rolls go a little easier for the team.

PiKA and Apex both spun in the Chute. While Pike’s appeared to be a routine spin, Apex’s likely resulted from hitting the grate, losing the hatch, and a hard brake. The driver controlled the spin without contact and was allowed to finish the roll.

One of the Spirit buggies was making unsettling sounds through the chute, possibly due to loose wheel covers or bad bearings. Inviscid got our hearts pounding with a severe fishtail through the Chute during one roll, but the driver was able to correct her buggy and exit the Chute without issue. During a different roll, the Hill 4 Spirit pusher had to do a surprise 4-5 double and kept their frustration in check by calling a pushoff to himself.

With all the stops and spins, the CIA chair suggested that the chair of whatever organization is responsible for stopping rolls must hold a plank for the duration of the stop. The idea was rejected as that would probably further prolong the delay.

Robobuggy and Atlas were seen walking around the course. Atlas is still in the process of fixing up Quasar, an old CIA buggy. Until then Atlas is using a re-jiggered jogging stroller as a test bed.

After repeated requests, we will now start including cumulative roll counts for each buggy/driver combo. An asterisk in the following table indicates a new driver:

Team

Buggy

Driver

Rolls To Date

AEPi

Kamikaze

Rachel*

0

Apex

Firefly

Sam

4

Phoenix

Ari*

0

Vicki*

5

CIA

Orca

Vicky

2

Tanvi*

6

Emperor

Rachel*

3

Icarus

Rishi*

2

Impulse

Yushuan

2

Rachel*

3

Kevin*

0

Equinox

Emily

8

Tempest

Kady

8

Fringe

Boson

Helen

5

Blueshift

Amy

3

Nina

3

Bissa

Tishya*

4

Nina

2

Bolt

Sarah*

3

PhiDelt

Argo

Sarah

2

PiKA

Cliodhna

Victoria

6

Banshee

Victoria

0

SAE

SDC

Inferno

Annie

4

Kyoko

3

Malice

Annie

3

Kyoko

4

Vice

Elaine*

0

Avarice

Amanda*

1

SigEp

Beyonce

Nazil

0

Haiwen*

0

Kraken

Nazli

2

Haiwen*

0

Barricuda

Sophie

2

Beccy*

0

SigNu

Krait

Claire*

0

Spirit

Seraph

Rebecca

0

Sarah*

4

Lillie*

2

Zuke

Diamond

6

Kingpin

Rebecca*

8

Lillie*

0

Sarah*

0

Inviscid

Veichen

7

—
Rolls Report Contributors:
Ben M.
Natalie M.

]]>http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/10/rolls-report-sept-30-oct-1-first-weekend-of-rolls/feed/12http://cmubuggy.org/news/2017/10/rolls-report-sept-30-oct-1-first-weekend-of-rolls/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationNews/~3/hHwkaRrtshM/2017-2018 Buggy Kickoff Newsletterhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BuggyAlumniAssociationUltimate/~3/Fy0zB9OrTkw/
Sat, 30 Sep 2017 21:19:11 +0000http://cmubuggy.org/news/?p=4110Welcome to a new season of rolls! We’re excited to see buggies on the course again, and to that end, we’ve got the 2017-2018 Buggy Kickoff Newsletter (including 2017 Raceday Recap) to share with you here.